


Game of Thrones, Season 1, Episode 5, The Lion and the Wolf

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s01e05 The Lion and the Wolf, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 01, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 03:02:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17779358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and later seasons. Complete.





	Game of Thrones, Season 1, Episode 5, The Lion and the Wolf

Open to the dead jousting knight from last episode being tended to by Silent Sisters. Ned asks Selmy if said DJK has any family, and answering no, Selmy adds he himself stood vigil during the night.

Upon being told all the knights draw straws, Ned wonders aloud who holds the straws.

To be clear, I don’t subscribe to the fandom notion Ned is an idiot. Him wondering this shows both logical reasoning and a lack of naïvety when it comes to the nature of humans. However, him saying this to Selmy might veer a little on the careless, naïve side. There’s no deep personal connection between these two, and as dialogue will soon establish, they were once genuine enemies, though not due to personal animosity towards one another. On a Watsonian level, Selmy being a knight doesn’t automatically exclude him from having some sort of endgame of his own in this court of people made up of lying, manipulative backstabbers and those with unclear and/or shifting loyalties.

Commending the Silent Sisters, Ned leaves, and Selmy follows. As a squire cloaks Selmy, he brings up the fact they once fought on different sides of the war, and Ned replies he’s glad they never met on the field.

They talk about Ned’s father, and Ned changes the subject to how DJK could afford the armour he was wearing. Selmy suggests Lysa’s husband left him some money before bringing up the fact Robert wants to joust. Ned makes it clear this isn’t happening.

Over to Robert, Lancel can’t get the armour on him, and Robert yells at him to go get the breastplate stretcher.

Look, I didn’t know a breastplate stretcher wasn’t a real thing until Ned made it clear it wasn’t, but- Lancel is an outright idiot. Maybe I should be fairer in this particular instance, but his father is a knight. _He’s_ either a knight or, at least, a squire. Several other men in his family are knights. It’s not a complete impossibility he wouldn’t have been repeatedly exposed the basics of armour, but it’s extremely improbable.

So, after the younger idiot runs away, Ned deals with the older, alcoholic idiot by dropping this truth bomb on him: No one is going to give him a fair fight. He might take losing with good grace, but he absolutely will not lose, because, no one is going to risk hurting the king.

Robert isn’t happy to hear this, but as usual, he appreciates Ned’s honesty.

Next, Ned has gone to sit down with Sansa and Septa Mordane. Sansa is smitten with Loras, and I’m glad Finn Jones ditched this wig after the first season. Giving Sansa a rose, it’s made clear why she was chosen for this when Renly is shown sitting behind her.

Littlefinger is also shown sitting near her and Ned.

Clinging to Ned, she begs him not to let Loras be hurt by the Mountain, and unsure how to handle this, he nevertheless tries to reassure and comfort her.

Littlefinger makes a bet against Loras to Renly, and Renly accepts. When Littlefinger wonders what he should get with his winnings, Renly suggests he could finally afford a friend with such an extravagant amount.

I like it when Littlefinger interacts with Renly, Margaery, and Loras.

Loras wins, and Renly literally jumps up in excitement before making a disdainful quip towards Littlefinger.

When it comes to Littlefinger’s response, on the one hand, it’s not particularly clever. Yet, I still really like it.

“Tell me, Lord Renly, when will you be having your friend?”

Sitting back down, he tells Sansa that Loras deliberately rode a mare in heat to rile up the Mountain’s horse. She insists Loras would never do something so dishonourable.

On the field, the Mountain kills his own horse before attacking the unarmed Loras. Renly is horrified, but thankfully, Sandor protects Loras. Robert takes way too long to order them to stop fighting, but finally, he does, and interestingly, he’s not even done speaking before Sandor is kneeling with his sword poised in front of him. It’s vertical with the pointy end touching the ground.

The Mountain storms off, Loras insists on making a big deal out of thanking Sandor, and Sandor’s like, ‘I should have let my brother kill you.’

Over to Catelyn and Tyrion, it’s established they’re heading to the Vale, and Tyrion basically declares she’s a moron for kidnapping him. Before he can fully go into this, however, they’re all attacked, and he ends up saving her life despite the fact she consistently makes things worse for him and his family, her and her entire family, and everyone else affected by the civil war in Westeroes.

Yes, if preteen Bran had listened to her about not climbing, there’s a good chance a lot of bad things wouldn’t have happened, but she, a grown woman, keeps doing, and in some cases, not doing, things to make an already terrible situation worse even when other grown adults try to clearly and rationally break down why she should or shouldn’t be doing things.

After the attackers are defeated, Tyrion and Bronn bond a little.

Over at Winterfell, Theon is practising archery as Maester Luwin tutors Bran, and Bran is upset at Catelyn leaving. He’s cheered up, however, by the thought he might be able to continue practising archery on the saddle Tyrion designed for him.

Next is a gross sex scene between Theon and Ros.

This is followed by a cute scene of Arya chasing a cat around for her water dance training.

In Ned’s office, Varys closes doors and windows. He asks about Bran, and when Ned says the paralysation is permanent, Varys briefly brings up his castration when opining that the mind being unaffected is the most important thing. Then, bluntly calling Robert a fool, he says Ned is the only one who can save Robert.

Ned asks why it’s taken Varys a month to bring this up, and the answer is: Varys didn’t trust Ned, but having been closely observing him, he’s concluded Ned truly is a man of honour.

Varys tells him about the poison that killed Lysa’s husband, and there’s a clever moment where Ned asked who killed him, and Varys implicates the dead squire without technically saying anything untrue.

“There was one boy. All he was, he owed to Jon Arryn.” This is Littlefinger. Now, in all technicality, Littlefinger owes more to Lysa’s obsessive love for him, and it’s likely, even without Lysa, Littlefinger still could have rose up so far on his own, but still, it’s true to say Littlefinger did profit immensely from Lysa’s husband being so willing to help him out.

When Ned brings up the squire, Varys nods slightly. “A pity what happened to him.”

A simple statement, but Ned takes it as an answer.

Ned asks who paid the squire, and now, tacitly lying, Varys suggests someone who could afford it. Then, he says Lysa’s husband’s death is due to the lord starting to ask questions.

I find this debatable, but it’s probably not an outright lie.

Later, Arya chases the cat into the crypts, and she hears Varys and another man talking about everything going on.

Next, Varys comes across Littlefinger in the throne room. Littlefinger suggests Varys visit his brothel with the offer of the first ‘boy’ on the house.

As much as I’d like to believe ‘boy’ is referring to a fully grown, adult man who is simply much younger than these two, dialogue establishes otherwise.

However, Varys is more interested in verbally sparring with Littlefinger than having any sort of sexual contact with anyone.

Then, awesomely, Renly appears. “What are you two conspiring about? Well, whatever it is, you best hurry up. My brother is coming.” Heh.

I really like this scene, but later seasons somewhat ruin it. I’m currently making my way through the books, but from what I understand, Littlefinger is rather different in the show than he is in them. In the books, most people genuinely like him, and the characters who do realise he’s two-faced don’t have any clear idea of what his goals are.

Aidan Gillen likely could have played a genuinely charming man who has most characters fooled and the audience constantly guessing what his true motives are well. There could have been a few scenes every now and again where he interacts with Varys, Renly, etc. that explicitly remind the audience he isn’t what he presents himself as.

Instead, he quickly becomes this incredibly creepy person that most people simply tolerate, almost no one trusts, and it’s debatable if anyone besides Lysa and Robin, the latter of whom, ironically, in the books, is suspicious and afraid of him, likes him.

Littlefinger is like, ‘What? The king’s actually doing something kingly and coming to a small council meeting?’

Varys is like, ‘Yeah, that verbal sparring match you _were_ winning? Well, I just swooped in and won it, ‘cause, I know what’s going on, and you don’t.’

Outside, Arya is wandering around, and when she tries to get back into the castle, guards stop her. They think she’s a street rat boy, and she makes it clear she’s the highborn daughter of the king’s hand.

Inside, Ned fusses at Arya about him having half of his personal guard looking for her, and I disagree with the people who take this a bad move on his part.

Completely taking Ned’s genuine love for his daughter out of the picture, Arya is a highborn virgin in a time when slut shaming is extremely potent, ideas of childhood innocence are often less defined than modern ones, and virginity in regards to unmarried female nobles is absolutely expected. If the wrong people got a hold of her, it would cause great shame for the Stark family. Preventing this shame is something many in this fictional world would consider a higher priority than his own physical safety.

Arya tells Ned about what she heard, but in what is a bad move, Ned doesn’t ever try to get more information out of her about this. I understand he’s busy now, but he should have tried later.

For now, a supposed member of the night’s watch appears, and he tries to compliment Ned on his son’s resemblance to him.

“I’m a girl!” Heh.

Ned asks if Benjen sent the man, and the answer is no, the man’s just hoping maybe Ned will be willing to give him some prisoners to take back to the wall. However, when Ned agrees he’ll find some recruits for the man, the man says he actually did come to talk about something else. In private.

Arya and Ned’s head of guard are sent away, and there’s a brief scene of the head guard assuring her he’d never let anyone kill her father.

Back in the office, Ned closes the door, and the man explains Catelyn has stupidly kidnapped Tyrion.

Over to them, Lysa’s guards are suspicious of Catelyn’s arrival, and they point out the now untied Tyrion doesn’t look like a prisoner.

Sure, there’s decency in her untying him after he both saved her and pointed out he’d likely die in the wild if he attempted to flee them, but also, the guard does have a point.

There’s some more bonding between Bronn and Tyrion, and it’d be nice if they could bond over something over than toxic masculinity in regards to women.

Back in King’s Landing, Ned is heading to find Robert when a servant tells him Robert’s summoned him to the small council. He asks if it’s about Catelyn, and no, instead of his idiot wife, it’s about the Mad Queen.

In said council, Robert reveals Jorah has send word of Dany’s pregnancy. He wants to the pregnant Dany killed, and whether anyone of them is making any decent political points or not, I just can’t get behind a pregnant woman who hasn’t even done anything being killed.

Why does no one suggest capturing her, killing her brother and rapist husband, locking the dragon eggs away in a vault, and taking the baby away once s/he’s born to be raised as a ward of some loyal noble household? Or anonymously deposited in some far away orphanage and telling everyone s/he died?

Of course, this could be my disdain of her fuelled by hindsight. I didn’t actually start despising the character until later in the first season, and it wasn’t until a few seasons later she went past all hopes of redemption in my eyes.

Ned is so against sending an assassin after a pregnant woman that he resigns his position.

He starts making plans to leave, but Littlefinger comes to get him to stay by offering to take him to the last person Lysa’s husband spoke to.

Instead of letting the mystery go, Ned orders guards to be placed around his daughters and for two of the best swordsmen to come with him when he goes to talk to Littlefinger’s witness.

Over in the Vale, Robin is way too old to still be breastfeeding, and Lysa is undeniably mentally unstable. Catelyn’s expression makes it clear she’s starting to realise this maybe wasn’t the best idea.

Even if Lysa weren’t mentally unstable and abusing her child by fostering a borderline incestuous relationship with him, Catelyn’s actions were stupid and likely couldn’t have been fixed enough to avoid civil war even with a competent or, at least, not actively malicious, insane sister stoking the fire, trying to genuinely help her.

Tyrion is tossed into a wind cell.

Over to Renly and Loras, Loras is shaving Renly. Renly is both fed up with his brother and jealous of Robert’s connection with Ned. Loras would like for Renly to be king, and the scene ends with Loras giving Renly a blowjob.

Jones and Gethin Anthony have wonderful chemistry, and this scene did a great job at establishing how intimate the relationship between their characters is.

When it comes to the disparity between explicit heterosexual and male homosexual sex scenes on the show, I agree there’s an unfair double standard. However, in all honestly, I’m not sure a full out male homosexual one would be done right, and so, it doesn’t bother me too much there aren’t any. Most of the heterosexual and lesbian ones are flat-out gross.

I don’t mean gratuitous, although, yes, most of them are often gratuitous, too. I mean they’re flat out ugly to watch. It’s often not about two people genuinely having fun, it’s almost never about love, and it’s usually served with a giant dollop of misogyny.

My solution would be: If the show wants sex scenes, get someone who does heterosexual ones significantly better, get someone who can do homosexual, both male and female, ones well, and have someone keeping track of the numbers so that there’s a mostly even number of the three. Gratuity is often subjective, and so, just decide: Would putting one in take away a significant amount of time from important plot or character development, and if no, is there a way to add depth or highlight a certain aspect of characterisation or relationship with this sex scene?

Sometimes, the answer to the latter is simply going to be no, but if it doesn’t take too much away from the rest of the story and will make the audience happy, a few scenes spread out would be fine.

Going over to Cersei and Robert, she comments, “Sorry your marriage to Ned Stark didn’t work out.”

This is an awesome scene between the two. They both put away their disdain for one another enough to truly discuss what’s going on with politics and the realm as equals, and they share a moment of bitter amusement over the fact they were both trapped in this marriage neither wanted and a raw moment of shared grief over their dead firstborn.

She asks, if the baby had survived, would there have been any hope for them, and wishing the answer was different, he honestly answers, “No.”

It hurts hearing this, but mostly, she’s numb, and some part of her does appreciate him saying what they both knew deep down.

In Littlefinger’s brothel, a prostitute, Mhaegen, has a baby, Barra. Specifically, Barra is Robert’s illegitimate daughter. Mhaegen clearly has a genuine fondness for Robert, and her love for her baby is unquestionable.

She tells Ned about Lysa’s husband asking if Barra was healthy and happy, and the answer was and is yes to both.

Somewhat uncomfortable, Ned nevertheless shows affection towards the baby, and he politely promises Mhaegen that Barra will never want for anything.

Going over to Littlefinger, he asks why Lysa’s husband was tracking down all of Robert’s illegitimate children, and Littlefinger suggests Robert wanted to make sure they were all properly provided for.

Ned and his guards leave only to be accosted by Jaime and other kingsguard men in the street. It turns out Jaime has a tiny bit of objection to his little brother being kidnapped, and since Ned isn’t the king’s hand anymore, he doesn’t feel the need to be particularly non-sword wave-y about this objection.

Ned lies that Catelyn did this with his full knowledge and consent, Littlefinger claims he’s going to summon the city watch to sort this out, and once he’s inside, a duel breaks out. Ned’s men are all killed, and Ned ends up with a wounded leg.

It should be noted: Jaime is not happy about this. He has having a fair fight with Ned, and one of the men stabbed Ned from behind.

So, having Ned’s men killed in cold blood was fine, but this was dishonourable enough to warrant Jaime punching the man in the face.

Then, weirdly, Jaime leaves the wounded Ned with a declaration he wants his brother back.

Why isn’t he taking Ned, then?

Fin.


End file.
